Armand

I met Armand two years ago at an exhibition in Venice, and he inspired immediate and mutual sympathy. Of Peruvian origin but a lifelong resident of Germany, Armand is an eclectic artist, and the techniques he uses to express himself lead him towards a fusion that I might call "spatial" between European and American painting. What struck me immediately about the various installations showcased at the exhibition were his monochromatic paintings featuring the most absent color that exists: black. In art, this color is a non-color because even shadows are colored—just think of our reflection on a floor or in a mirror—and its opposite, white, is nothing more than the sum of colors. In painting techniques, white and black are also referred to as "dead colors" because their cold tone generally serves as a base in artistic preparation. Using black uniformly on the canvas denotes courage, or the search for a particular expressive language. The black canvases displayed in Venice, I have called Armand's Black Stars.